In the field of games, it is desirable to provide a war game, with or without a map, that combines the elements of strategic skill, foresight, planning, chance, suspense, challenge, and knowledge of warfare or geopolitics as an entertaining diversion for one or more players, since such games can also teach survival. Heretofore however, such games have been intended to teach survival more by aggression, confrontation and complete victory over an opponent than by peaceable means for negotiation such as were described on page A2 of the Apr. 12, 1984, New York Times, which is incorporated by reference herein. Additionally, these games have not fostered nuclear awareness by contrasting the heaven of survival with the hell of annihilation as a feature. In addition, it has been desirable to use such games creatively and actively in real time as a means for teaching survival by using peaceable means to settle simulated disputes before they escalate irretriveably into simulated nuclear warfare. Still further, it has been advantageous to provide an improved word and riddle game having means for correlating the use of specific words with the play of the game.
One survival game for teaching the dangers of geopolitics is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,051. This game has a board surface in the form of a map having grid spaces along which playing pieces move. The playing pieces are assigned target sites by the role of dice. The object of the game is to move separate playing pieces a number of spaces for each role of the dice to assigned target sites. To carry out a designated but limited mission a player may try to impede the progress of the other players and, if required, one of the pieces will return to the starting point. Forbidden and danger zones are designated on the map to further impede movement of the playing pieces and contribute to the importance of strategy to the game. The means used tend to emphasize survival by limited action, and the elements of aggression and competition tend to be emphasized.
Another game that may be used as a teaching tool is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,038. However, this invention principally involves survival by confrontation and the limited objectives of domination. It also involves sophisticated concepts of map making, such as latitudinal and longitudinal directions.
The battle situation game of U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,504 likewise teaches the art of survival by limited warfare involving battle-simulation, wherein two players are provided with various game pieces representing military components for executing limited maneuvers.
Likewise, the games of U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,300,368; 2,343,82; 3,155,391 and 4,415,160 are limited as teaching tools, because they involve the relatively minor dangers of flying and the limited objectives of non-nuclear bombs.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,155,391, the game is complicated by a series of changeable squares that may be removed, replaced, or inverted to change the particular color according to the level of difficulty desired.